Who is the author when I cite a painting in a museum?

The artist. APA's official Wood (1930) and van Gogh (1889) lines begin with the artist; MLA's official Bearden line does the same; Chicago's Dalí note does too. The museum appears later as the holding institution. The museum becomes the author only when you cite something the museum wrote, such as the official APA plaque line or an MLA wall-text description.

How do I cite the label next to an artwork?

As a separate unsigned document. APA's official example is [Plaque with background information about American Gothic]. (n.d.). Art Institute Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States. MLA starts with Wall text for and then the work and artist, as in the official Giago / Unbound line. Chicago cites the label in a note with the museum as author and does not usually list it in the bibliography. Never give the plaque the object's year.

Do I include the URL if I saw the work in person?

No. APA's official Wood pair is the proof: the in-person line has no URL; the Art Institute URL appears only on the website line. MLA's Bearden pair makes the same split with a comma versus a period. Chicago adds a URL only for works consulted online (14.133).

How do I cite an artifact with no known maker?

Start with a description, not Anonymous. APA puts a bracketed description in place of the title and, if there is no maker, in the author position. MLA's official wall-text samples already do this in roman type: Wall text for central Caribbean tripod vessel in the form of a spectacled owl and Wall text for jar with feathered serpent design. Chicago describes the object in the text or a note beginning with that description.

Does an artwork go in a Chicago bibliography?

Usually not. CMOS 14.133, as UQ reprints it, says information about paintings, photographs, sculptures, or other works of art can usually be presented in the text rather than in a note or bibliography. Include an entry if your instructor requires every cited work to be listed, using artist, title, date, medium, institution, city, accession number when available, and URL if consulted online.

What date do I use for a work the museum dates approximately?

The museum's own date, including its qualifier. APA writes (ca. Year) in both the reference and the in-text citation. MLA writes Circa Year in the date slot. Chicago writes ca. Year in a note. Do not round to a decade or drop the qualifier; a circa date is a reasoned approximation, not a missing date.

How do I cite a work I saw in a temporary exhibition that has since closed?

In MLA, make the exhibition the container, as in the official Turner / Frick line, or cite the show itself as in the official Unbound and Cave lines. In APA, cite the work under its artist with its permanent home as the source; cite the exhibition separately under its title or curator if the show itself matters — Design for Eternity (2015–2016) is the official no-curator sample. In Chicago, describe the object in the text and mention the exhibition and dates there or in the note.

Do I need the accession or reference number?

In Chicago 18, yes when the museum publishes one. What's New for CMOS 18 §14.133 says museum accession numbers should be included in citations of artworks when they are available. The Art Institute prints 1930.934 on the American Gothic record. APA and MLA do not require that number in the reference or works-cited entry; they identify the work by artist, title, date, and museum (plus URL if you used the site).

How to Cite a Museum Exhibit in APA, MLA, and Chicago [2026]

How to Cite a Museum Exhibit: Quick Answer

Cite the object under the artist, with title, date, and the museum and city; add the museum URL only if you used the collection page. Cite a wall label as a separate unsigned document — a bracketed plaque description in APA, a Wall text for… description in MLA, a note-only unpublished museum document in Chicago. Cite the exhibition under its curator or its title, with run dates and venue. Cite the printed catalog as a book. APA 7 wants a roman bracketed medium after the italic title and the city, state, and country after the museum. MLA 9 puts a comma after the year for an object seen in person and a period after the year when the same object sits on a website. Chicago 18 usually describes the object in the running text; a note is optional, and CMOS 18 now wants the accession number when the museum publishes one.

Templates

APA 7 artwork, seen in person:

Artist, A. A. (Year). Title of work [Medium]. Museum Name, City, ST, Country.

APA 7 plaque or wall text:

[Plaque with background information about Title]. (n.d. or exhibition year). Museum Name, City, ST, Country.

APA 7 exhibition, curator unknown:

Title of exhibition [Exhibition]. (Year–Year). Museum Name, City, ST, Country.

MLA 9 artwork, seen in person:

Artist Last Name, First Name. Title of Work. Year, Museum Name, City.

MLA 9 wall text:

Wall text for Title of Work, by Artist Name. Exhibition Title, Day Mon. Year-Day Mon. Year, Museum Name, City.

Chicago 18 note for an artwork (CMOS 14.133):

1. Artist Name, Title of Work, Year, medium, dimensions, Museum Name, City, object no. Accession, URL if consulted online.

Chicago 18 note for a catalog (CMOS 14.134):

2. Author Name, Title of Catalog, exh. cat. (Publisher, Year), Page.

Four different sources in one gallery visit

Decide what you actually used before you pick a template. If you describe brushwork or composition, you are citing the object. If you quote the sentence that identifies the sitter or the culture, you are citing the museum's label, and the museum wrote it. If your argument is about how the show grouped its objects, the exhibition is the source. If you read the essay in the catalog, cite the catalog as a book with its own author and — when you have them — page numbers. The image in APA walkthrough covers only the first case.

Which template each museum source takes
What you used	Author	Treat it as	Date
The painting, sculpture, or artifact itself	The artist or maker; a description if unknown	A visual work in a collection	Year or circa date the museum gives
Wall label, panel, or audio-guide text	The museum, or a description in the author slot	An untitled unpublished document	The plaque date, the exhibition year, or n.d. — never the object's year
The exhibition as a whole	The curator when named; otherwise the exhibition title	An event with run dates and a venue	Opening and closing years or full run dates
The exhibition catalog	The catalog's author or editor	A book; CMOS 14.134 adds exh. cat. in the note	Publication year
The museum's online collection record	The artist for the object; the museum for its commentary	The artwork with a URL, or a webpage	Object date; page date or n.d.

APA 7 §10.14: artist, year, title, bracketed medium, museum

Classroom APA still means the seventh edition of the Publication Manual (2020). Visual works sit in §10.14. The free examples live on APA Style's artwork references page; apastyle.apa.org is often blocked by a bot challenge, so this page locks the same notes as reprinted by Alamo Colleges. That reprint is what the APA image guide already uses for Wood and van Gogh. This page adds the exhibition and plaque decision that a gallery visit actually forces.

Official APA Style artwork notes (Publication Manual §10.14, Alamo reprint)

Use this format to cite all types of museum artwork, including paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints, drawings, digital art, crafts, and installations.

Always include a description of the medium or format in square brackets after the title. The description is flexible (e.g., a general description such as “[Painting]” or a more specific description such as “[Oil painting]” or “[Oil on canvas]”).

For untitled artwork, include a description in square brackets in place of a title.

Provide a link to the artwork on the museum website if available.

Provide the curator(s) of the exhibition in the author element of the reference.

When the curator is unknown, move the title of the exhibition to the author position of the reference.

Provide a description of the plaque in square brackets rather than the name of the artwork or item so it is clear that you are citing the plaque itself.

If the plaque itself is dated, use that date. If the plaque is not dated, use “n.d.” Do not use the date of the artwork or item being described.

Artwork viewed in person versus on the museum site

The artist and year stay those of the original work. The museum stays the source. What changes is the URL: omit it when you stood in the gallery; add the museum's own object page when that page is what you opened. Do not paste a Google Images, Pinterest, or Wikimedia file in place of the collection record. Grant Wood's American Gothic (oil on beaver board, Art Institute reference 1930.934, Gallery 263) is the official APA pair.

Official APA 7 museum artwork examples (Publication Manual §10.14 / Alamo)

Reference list, viewed in person (Wood, 1930):

Wood, G. (1930). American gothic [Painting]. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States.

Parenthetical:

(Wood, 1930)

Reference list, same work on the Art Institute site:

Wood, G. (1930). American gothic [Painting]. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States. https://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/6565

Reference list, official van Gogh online line:

van Gogh, V. (1889). The starry night [Painting]. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, United States. https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/vincent-van-gogh-the-starry-night-1889/

Parenthetical:

(van Gogh, 1889)

Narrative:

van Gogh (1889)

Exhibition label or wall plaque

A plaque is an unsigned, usually unrecoverable document. APA moves a bracketed description into the author position. The date is the plaque's date, not 1930. Alamo reprints the official American Gothic plaque line with the museum styled Art Institute Chicago — keep that wording when you are copying the official example. If the museum publishes the same text on its website, cite that webpage instead; readers can retrieve it.

Official APA 7 informational museum plaque (Alamo reprint)

Reference list:

[Plaque with background information about American Gothic]. (n.d.). Art Institute Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States.

Parenthetical:

([Plaque with background information about American Gothic], n.d.)

Narrative:

[Plaque with background information about American Gothic] (n.d.)

The exhibition itself, and the catalog

An exhibition takes [Exhibition] after the italic sentence-case title. Name the curator when the museum credits one; otherwise start with the title. The date is the run, as a year or a year range. The official no-curator sample is the Met's Design for Eternity show (26 October 2015–18 September 2016 at The Met Fifth Avenue). The official curator sample is Martinez and Douar at the Louvre. The catalog is a different source: a book with an author or editor. Joanne Pillsbury's 2015 Met catalog belongs to that show; Carmen C. Bambach's 2017 Met catalog (ISBN 978-1-58839-637-2, 392 pages) belongs to Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer (13 November 2017–12 February 2018). When the museum is both author and publisher, APA omits the publisher.

Official APA 7 exhibitions (Alamo) and real catalogs

Reference list, exhibition with no credited curator:

Design for eternity: Architectural models from the ancient Americas [Exhibition]. (2015–2016). The Met Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, United States. https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2015/design-for-eternity

Parenthetical:

(Design for Eternity, 2015–2016)

Reference list, exhibition with named curators:

Martinez, J.-L., & Douar, F. (2018–2019). Archaeology goes graphic [Exhibition]. The Louvre, Paris, France. https://www.louvre.fr/en/expositions/archaeology-goes-graphic

Parenthetical:

(Martinez & Douar, 2018–2019)

Reference list, catalog for the Met show (book, not the exhibition):

Pillsbury, J., Sarro, P. J., Doyle, J. A., & Wiersema, J. B. (2015). Design for eternity: Architectural models from the ancient Americas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Reference list, Bambach catalog:

Bambach, C. C. (2017). Michelangelo: Divine draftsman and designer. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

MLA 9: comma in the gallery, period on the website

MLA documents the version you actually saw. The firsthand-or-online post still carries an eighth-edition banner; the ninth-edition image page keeps the same Romare Bearden pair. The punctuation change is the whole rule. The artwork-from-an-exhibition, museum-exhibition, wall-text, and art-catalog notes supply the other three gallery sources. Medium is optional and, if given, goes at the end. Titles of paintings, sculptures, and named artifacts are italic; a description of an untitled object is roman.

Official MLA Style Center wording (museum image, 29 September 2016)

Note that in the above works-cited-list entries, the date is followed by a comma in the first example and a period in the second. In the first example, 1975 is in the publication-date slot on the MLA format template. In the second example, 1975 tells you when The Train was created, not when it was published on the site MOMA.

There is no date after the title of the container (MOMA) because the date the image was posted is not given on the site.

Provide a description of the wall text as the title of the source. This may include the title of the artwork the wall text explains and the artist who created it.

Cite an art catalog the way you would cite a book.

In person versus online

Official MLA Style Center Bearden pair

Works cited, seen in the gallery:

Bearden, Romare. The Train. 1975, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Works cited, seen on the museum website:

Bearden, Romare. The Train. 1975. MOMA, www.moma.org/collection/works/65232?locale=en.

In-text:

(Bearden)

Wall text and labels

Quote the label only when the museum's wording is the evidence. When you are merely identifying the object, cite the object. The wall-text post starts the entry with a description. A temporary show becomes the container; a permanent-collection label stops at the museum and city. The three official samples below are National Museum of the American Indian objects, including an untitled vessel described in roman type.

Official MLA Style Center wall-text samples

Works cited, label in a dated exhibition:

Wall text for A Warrior’s Story, Honoring Grandpa Blue Bird, by Lauren Good Day Giago. Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains, 12 Mar.-4 Dec. 2016, National Museum of the American Indian, New York.

Works cited, untitled object in a dated exhibition:

Wall text for central Caribbean tripod vessel in the form of a spectacled owl. Céramica de los Ancestros: Central America’s Past Revealed, 18 Apr. 2015-Dec. 2017, National Museum of the American Indian, New York.

Works cited, permanent-collection label:

Wall text for jar with feathered serpent design. National Museum of the American Indian, New York.

In-text (first words of the description, no quotation marks):

(Wall text for A Warrior’s Story)

The exhibition as a container, and the exhibition itself

When you saw the object in a temporary show, the exhibition is the container: italic title, run dates, venue, city. The official sample is Turner's Dieppe at the Frick. When the show itself is your subject, start with the exhibition title. The official pair is Unbound at NMAI and Nick Cave's Until at Mass MoCA.

Official MLA Style Center exhibition entries

Works cited, artwork seen in a dated exhibition:

Turner, Joseph Mallord William. Dieppe: The Port from the Quai Henri IV. Turner’s Modern and Ancient Ports: Passages through Time, 23 Feb. 2017- 14 May 2017, Frick Collection, New York.

Works cited, the exhibition itself:

Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains. 12 Mar.-4 Dec. 2016, National Museum of the American Indian, New York.

Works cited, artist-centered installation:

Cave, Nick. Until. 15 Oct. 2016-Aug. 2017, Mass MOCA, North Adams.

In-text for the exhibition:

(Unbound)

Museum catalogs

A catalog is a book. The art-catalog post uses Bambach's Michelangelo catalog (the Style Center line misspells Metropolitan as Metropolitian; cite the book with the museum's real name) and a no-author High Museum catalog. An essay inside a catalog is a chapter in an edited collection. Use the book citation generator for these.

Official MLA Style Center catalog samples

Works cited, catalog with an author:

Bambach, Carmen C. Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017.

Works cited, catalog with no author or editor:

American Encounters: The Simple Pleasures of Still Life. High Museum of Art, 2014.

In-text:

(Bambach); (American Encounters)

Chicago 18 §§14.133–14.134: describe the object, cite the catalog

Chicago's artwork rule is the opposite of APA's. You usually put artist, title, date, medium, and holding institution in the running text and skip the note. Write a note only when the discussion needs one. CMOS 18 §14.133, as reprinted by the University of Queensland, keeps that preference and adds a URL for works consulted online. What's New in the 18th Edition adds two museum-specific changes: include the accession number when the museum publishes one, and you may write exh. cat. after a catalog title in a note. Wall text is unpublished museum writing; CMOS 14.114 keeps unretrievable unpublished documents in the note, not the bibliography. All book-shaped examples follow the live Notes and Bibliography Quick Guide.

Official CMOS 18 artwork and catalog wording

Information about paintings, photographs, sculptures, or other works of art can usually be presented in the text rather than in a note or bibliography.

If a note or bibliography entry is needed, list the artist, a title (in italics), and a date of creation or completion, followed by information about the medium and the location of the work.

For works consulted online, add a URL (14.133).

Museum accession numbers should be included in citations of artworks when they are available.

The abbreviation “exh. cat.” may be used for an exhibition catalog cited in a note.

Artwork in a note, and when it goes in the bibliography

The UQ reprint of §14.133 uses Salvador Dalí's The Persistence of Memory at MoMA. The Art Institute record for Wood, opened for this rewrite, supplies the beaver-board medium, the 30 3/4 × 25 3/4 in. (78 × 65.3 cm) dimensions, and reference number 1930.934. Use the accession number CMOS 18 now asks for. List the work in a bibliography only if your instructor wants every cited object listed.

Chicago 18, artworks (CMOS 14.133 form)

In the text, with no note needed:

Grant Wood's American Gothic (1930, oil on beaver board, Art Institute of Chicago) sets the pitchfork against the carpenter-gothic window.

Note, UQ reprint of the CMOS Dalí sample, URL updated to https:

1. Salvador Dalí, The Persistence of Memory, 1931, oil on canvas, 9½ × 13″ (24.1 × 33 cm), Museum of Modern Art, New York, https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79018.

Note, Wood from the live Art Institute record plus CMOS 18 accession:

2. Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930, oil on beaver board, 30 3/4 × 25 3/4 in. (78 × 65.3 cm), Art Institute of Chicago, reference no. 1930.934, https://www.artic.edu/artworks/6565/american-gothic.

Shortened note:

3. Wood, American Gothic.

Bibliography (only if your instructor wants artworks listed):

Wood, Grant. American Gothic. 1930. Oil on beaver board, 30 3/4 × 25 3/4 in. (78 × 65.3 cm). Art Institute of Chicago. Reference no. 1930.934. https://www.artic.edu/artworks/6565/american-gothic.

Wall text and labels

Chicago has no numbered template for a label. Build the note from what identifies it: the museum as author, a description of the label, the gallery if it helps, the exhibition and its dates if the label belonged to a temporary show, and the date you saw it. Labels rarely belong in a bibliography. The rows below are labelled templates, not official CMOS samples.

Chicago 18 wall-text templates (not official samples)

Note, permanent-collection label:

4. Art Institute of Chicago, wall text for Grant Wood, American Gothic, Gallery 263, Chicago, viewed Month Day, Year.

Note, label in a temporary exhibition:

5. Metropolitan Museum of Art, wall text in Design for Eternity: Architectural Models from the Ancient Americas, New York, October 26, 2015–September 18, 2016.

Shortened note:

6. Art Institute of Chicago, wall text for Wood, American Gothic.

Exhibition catalogs and the exhibition itself

Cite the catalog as a book. In the note, CMOS 18 §14.134 lets you add exh. cat. after the title. In the bibliography you may add the conjunction line. The New York Society Library record for Bambach quotes the catalog's own statement: the book was published in conjunction with the Met show on view from November 13, 2017, through February 12, 2018. Do not invent a page number; cite a page only when you have the book open. CMOS does not give a bibliography form for the exhibition as an event — name the show in the text, as La Trobe's CMOS 14.133/8.204 guide notes, and cite the catalog if you used one.

Chicago 18, catalog (CMOS 14.134) and exhibition-in-text

Note, catalog (page omitted unless you have the book open):

7. Carmen C. Bambach, Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer, exh. cat. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017).

Bibliography, catalog, with the book's own conjunction line:

Bambach, Carmen C. Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017. Published in conjunction with “Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer,” on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from November 13, 2017, through February 12, 2018.

Note, Pillsbury catalog for the APA exhibition example:

8. Joanne Pillsbury, Patricia Joan Sarro, James Alan Doyle, and Juliet Benham Wiersema, Design for Eternity: Architectural Models from the Ancient Americas, exh. cat. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015).

In the text, the exhibition as an event:

The Met's Design for Eternity: Architectural Models from the Ancient Americas (October 26, 2015–September 18, 2016) grouped tomb models from the ancient Americas.

Chicago author-date

Author-date papers still describe artworks in the text. Only the catalog and any museum webpage need a reference-list line, with the year after the author. See the Author-Date citation guide.

Chicago 18 author-date

In-text, catalog:

(Bambach 2017)

Reference list, catalog:

Bambach, Carmen C. 2017. Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In-text, artwork (if a parenthetical is wanted):

(Wood 1930)

Online collection versus in-person viewing

You stood in front of it

APA: no URL; museum, city, state, country.
MLA: year, comma, museum, city — one container. Official form: 1975, Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Chicago: describe in the text; note with institution and city, no URL, plus the accession number when the label or wall card prints one.
Use the date and title from the label or the museum's printed guide, not from memory.
For a temporary show, note the exhibition and its dates; the object may have gone home.

You used the museum's website

APA: same entry plus the object-page URL; the museum is still the source.
MLA: year, period, website name, URL — a second container. Official form: 1975. MOMA, www.moma.org/…
Chicago: add the URL at the end of the note or bibliography entry (14.133).
Cite the museum as author only for its commentary, not for the object.
Never cite a Google Images, Pinterest, or Wikipedia copy in place of the collection record.

Quick comparison

Museum sources in the three styles
Source	APA 7	MLA 9	Chicago 18
Artwork seen in person	Artist. (Year). Title [Medium]. Museum, City, ST, Country.	Artist. Title. Year, Museum, City.	In the text, or a note: Artist, Title, Year, medium, Museum, City, accession.
Artwork on the museum site	Same, plus the object URL	Artist. Title. Year. Site, URL.	Same note, plus the URL
Wall label	[Plaque with background…]. (n.d.). Museum, City, ST, Country.	Wall text for Title, by Artist. Museum, City.	Note only: Museum, wall text for Artist, Title, gallery, viewed date.
Exhibition	Curator or Title [Exhibition]. (Years). Museum, City, ST, Country.	Title. Run dates, Museum, City.	Name it in the text; CMOS gives no bibliography form for the event.
Catalog	Author. (Year). Title. Publisher.	Author. Title. Publisher, Year.	Author. Title, exh. cat. (Publisher, Year). Optional conjunction line.
In-text form	(Wood, 1930); (Bambach, 2017)	(Bearden); (Bambach)	Note number, or (Bambach 2017)

Common mistakes

Citing the museum as the author of a painting. The artist is the author; the museum is the source or location.
Citing the painting when you quoted the label. The museum wrote the label; APA's official plaque line begins with a bracketed description, not Wood, 1930.
Giving the plaque the object's year. Alamo's reprint is explicit: if the plaque is undated, write n.d.; do not write 1930.
Adding a URL to an object you saw in person. Every style reserves the URL for the online record you actually used.
Using MLA website punctuation for a gallery visit. Bearden in the room takes a comma after 1975; Bearden on MOMA takes a period.
Dropping the bracketed medium in APA or putting it in italics. It is roman text in square brackets after the italic title.
Inventing a year for an object the museum dates ca. Keep the qualifier; see How to Cite a Source with No Date.
Writing Anonymous for an untitled vessel or jar. APA uses a bracketed description; MLA uses a roman description, as in the official spectacled-owl and feathered-serpent wall-text lines. See How to Cite a Source with No Author and How to Cite a Source with No Title.
Putting an artwork in a Chicago bibliography by default. Chicago describes it in the text and adds a note when needed.
Treating the catalog as the exhibition. Pillsbury 2015 is a book; Design for Eternity (2015–2016) is an event.
Citing a photograph of the object from a textbook as if you saw the object. Cite the book and its plate, as in How to Cite a Figure or Table Reproduced from Another Source.

Format the museum citation

The artwork generator builds the artist–title–year–museum entry in APA, MLA, or Chicago and adds the URL only when you give it one. Use the book generator for the catalog. Write the wall-text description by hand from the official plaque or Wall text for… lines above.

Artwork citation generator →Book citation generator →In-text citation generator →

Frequently asked questions

Who is the author when I cite a painting in a museum?: The artist. APA's official Wood (1930) and van Gogh (1889) lines begin with the artist; MLA's official Bearden line does the same; Chicago's Dalí note does too. The museum appears later as the holding institution. The museum becomes the author only when you cite something the museum wrote, such as the official APA plaque line or an MLA wall-text description.
How do I cite the label next to an artwork?: As a separate unsigned document. APA's official example is [Plaque with background information about American Gothic]. (n.d.). Art Institute Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States. MLA starts with Wall text for and then the work and artist, as in the official Giago / Unbound line. Chicago cites the label in a note with the museum as author and does not usually list it in the bibliography. Never give the plaque the object's year.
Do I include the URL if I saw the work in person?: No. APA's official Wood pair is the proof: the in-person line has no URL; the Art Institute URL appears only on the website line. MLA's Bearden pair makes the same split with a comma versus a period. Chicago adds a URL only for works consulted online (14.133).
How do I cite an artifact with no known maker?: Start with a description, not Anonymous. APA puts a bracketed description in place of the title and, if there is no maker, in the author position. MLA's official wall-text samples already do this in roman type: Wall text for central Caribbean tripod vessel in the form of a spectacled owl and Wall text for jar with feathered serpent design. Chicago describes the object in the text or a note beginning with that description.
How do I cite an exhibition catalog?: As a book. APA: Bambach, C. C. (2017). Michelangelo: Divine draftsman and designer. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. MLA's official sample is Bambach, Carmen C. Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017. Chicago treats it the same way and, in a note, may add exh. cat. after the title (14.134). An essay inside the catalog is a chapter in an edited book. Do not invent a page number.
Does an artwork go in a Chicago bibliography?: Usually not. CMOS 14.133, as UQ reprints it, says information about paintings, photographs, sculptures, or other works of art can usually be presented in the text rather than in a note or bibliography. Include an entry if your instructor requires every cited work to be listed, using artist, title, date, medium, institution, city, accession number when available, and URL if consulted online.
What date do I use for a work the museum dates approximately?: The museum's own date, including its qualifier. APA writes (ca. Year) in both the reference and the in-text citation. MLA writes Circa Year in the date slot. Chicago writes ca. Year in a note. Do not round to a decade or drop the qualifier; a circa date is a reasoned approximation, not a missing date.
How do I cite a work I saw in a temporary exhibition that has since closed?: In MLA, make the exhibition the container, as in the official Turner / Frick line, or cite the show itself as in the official Unbound and Cave lines. In APA, cite the work under its artist with its permanent home as the source; cite the exhibition separately under its title or curator if the show itself matters — Design for Eternity (2015–2016) is the official no-curator sample. In Chicago, describe the object in the text and mention the exhibition and dates there or in the note.
Do I need the accession or reference number?: In Chicago 18, yes when the museum publishes one. What's New for CMOS 18 §14.133 says museum accession numbers should be included in citations of artworks when they are available. The Art Institute prints 1930.934 on the American Gothic record. APA and MLA do not require that number in the reference or works-cited entry; they identify the work by artist, title, date, and museum (plus URL if you used the site).

How to Cite a Museum Exhibit: Quick Answer

Four different sources in one gallery visit

APA 7 §10.14: artist, year, title, bracketed medium, museum

Artwork viewed in person versus on the museum site

Exhibition label or wall plaque

The exhibition itself, and the catalog

MLA 9: comma in the gallery, period on the website

In person versus online

Wall text and labels

The exhibition as a container, and the exhibition itself

Museum catalogs

Chicago 18 §§14.133–14.134: describe the object, cite the catalog

Artwork in a note, and when it goes in the bibliography

Wall text and labels

Exhibition catalogs and the exhibition itself

Chicago author-date

Online collection versus in-person viewing

Quick comparison

Common mistakes

Format the museum citation

Frequently asked questions

Related guides and official manuals